This is very, very interesting. It’s almost certainly an announcement of the Kindle Tablet. Wish it also includes a Kindle 4 announcement.

It’s almost certainly designed to steal the thunder from the Nook Color 2 announcement. The timing (Nook Color 2 is rumored to launch in end September/early October) suggests that Kindle Tablet is aimed at the Nook Color and not the iPad 2.

could you please let me know what part sounded bitter so I could perhaps start adding a smiley face to it to make sure people don’t assume that part is meant with bitterness.

Update: If you meant about the part about ‘Why not just call it a Kindle Tablet Conference – well, there’s no bitterness. Just bemusement.

Amazon probably thinks if it announces that it’s a Kindle Tablet conference it’ll allow its competitors to glean some super valuable data point and adjust their PR-Rank Algorithms and take over the world. And it will all stem from this little mistake of announcing what a conference in New York City that it is inviting people to, is about.

For example, let’s say a reporter from Florida flies from Orlando to NYC and attends the conference and Amazon announces Library Lending. That would be a wasted flight since we already know library lending is out.

This is the sort of thing that’s confusing. Why is Amazon doing Apple style Intrigue and mystery announcements?
People who read are very smart people and in my limited experience this isn’t the sort of thing they get excited about. A great device. Yes. A mystery and intrigue filled announcement in NYC? How childish.

I knew (past tense) what the goal of corporations is. I used to work in the Trust Division of a large bank, but I’ve been on full disability because of MS for the last 26 years. In that amount of time, I have forgotten a lot.

irish, the “one up” is worth billions of dollars, not a bag of marbles!

Smart move by Amazon to knock donw BN, since Apple is not a true competitor in the core mission of controlling ebook content, which is much smarter for Amazon. The worldwide book market will be the gift that keeps on giving long after the device wars are over.

Also, blowing Nook out of the water is something they can do. Blowing iPad out of the water is something they cannot easily do — Amazon has no real ecosystem of apps, for one thing, and for another, iPad 2 hardware is not easily bestable at $499. let alone what amazon customers want to spend. Targeting the “books and media consumption plus” market first might eventually allow them to get there, from the other side, as it were.

As an iPad plus Kindle owner, I find the Nook Color and the Kindle Tablet the most credible entry into the tablet space post iPad — neither is just copying Apple (making some assumptions on Amazon’s behalf), although we’ll have to see how much they copy each other.

On a personal note: And give me my more-compact Kindle 4 with touch, and hurry up about it.